The present invention relates to a hydroponic garden and in particular to a hydroponic garden utilizing readily available materials to enable construction of a small garden for private use that is relatively low in cost to be affordable to the home gardener.
Hydroponic gardening is the growing of plants in nutrient solutions with or without an inert medium to provide mechanical support for the plant. When grown hydroponically, plants will flourish in a manner superior to the manner in which they are grown in a normal soil medium. This is due to the fact that the plants do not have to develop the expansive root systems that they normally do in soil to absorb the necessary food. Further, the root systems are not compelled to grow or plow through a dense soil medium in order to find food and water as they would in a normal soil medium. In utilizing a hydroponic growing technique, the plants begin growth very quickly and grow faster than they would in a soil medium and ripen earlier. Additionally, with hydroponic gardening, the plants require less space in which to grow due to the fact that their feeding and root structures are not contained, thereby permitting the plants to feed and breath much more easily than they could in soil.
Numerous commercial hydroponic gardening systems have been developed. However, many of these systems use specialized components that are not readily available, resulting in a high cost system that is not affordable by a home gardener. For instance, many hydroponic gardening systems use specialized growing chambers for the plants that are adapted specifically for use with a given hydroponic garden. These often contain separate water inlets and outlets and may even include water distribution tubes therein. These growing chambers must often be used with specialized troughs or channels through which the nutrient solution is circulated. The troughs or channels may also contain smaller tubing therein for conveying the nutrient solution. Gardening systems with these specialized components may be affordable by commercial growers who derive an income from their produce but are often too expensive for the home gardener.
It is an objective of the present invention, therefore, to provide a hydroponic garden utilizing readily available components to reduce the cost of the garden.
The hydroponic garden of the present invention utilizes conventional flower pots having an aperture in the bottom wall for the plant growing chambers. The flower pots are supported in openings in the top wall of a plastic conduit that is intermittently filled with a nutrient solution which surrounds the flower pots and fills them through the bottom wall aperture. The nutrient solution is stored in a reservoir between watering cycles and is intermittently pumped into the conduit by a preprogrammed timer.
The garden can be made as large or as small as desired by the gardener. Hydroponic gardening is particularly suited for persons living in apartments who do not have the space or ground in which to plant a garden. It is an advantage of the garden of the present invention that the garden can be incorporated into a deck railing, or placed on a table that can be easily moved for proper sunlight or in the event of a frost.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.